The World Cup According to Grande: The Spring rush is finally over
BACK FROM THE SPRING RUSH!
So, what to write about? Athletes running to Team Head to pick up a pay check? The coaching changes in Austria? The coaching changes at the US Ski Team and in Canada? The inability of the US Ski Team to field fully funded National Teams that are ready to be consistently fueled with quality athletes on the World Cup for the foreseeable future? I will cover all of those topics at some point. It seems to me that the current US Ski Team funding problem will have a blog all to itself.
I have even gotten some feedback from readers that I should be writing about some J3 girl who won Topolino and Whistler? No thanks, I refuse to get into speculation on J3 athletes. They have enough to deal with just being a teenager and going out into the big FIS world next season. Age group racing means nothing. It is homogeneous and restrictive by design. Say it however you want but I put no stock in results at that level. You just don’t know what you are looking at, her victory margin could simply be a product of poor runs or a poor talent level in the rest of the pool. Leave it alone, leave her alone (whatever her name is) and move on. Let her develop and stop posting videos of her on line. If she truly is great, it will bear itself out in a year or two, be patient.
It is always hard to pick up writing again after taking a break. I have had no time to get it done. We had a huge rush of activity at the end of the season at World Cup Finals in Garmisch. After that, most of the National Team athletes hit the Alpine Championship seasons around the world. On our side, we were busy hosting Western Region Spring Series, after which we headed to Mt Bachelor in Bend, Oregon for some spring DH races. The home Spring Series in Mission Ridge was made difficult by some heavy snows before the series and again on the first scheduled SG day. But, we quickly canceled on Day 1 and moved on to work on the hill and got caught up with a race on Day 2 for men and women. After a few hours of powder skiing and cornice jumping, the athletes and coaches all started working on the race hill and we got a couple of races off. Not only that, but almost everyone in the race scored a FIS point result on that day. How many days in your ski racing life do you get to ski powder all morning and then race Super-G in the afternoon and SCORE? Almost never is the correct answer. After that, we shoe-horned Super-G racing into the mornings on the weekend and were back on schedule by Monday. All the scheduled events took place and we had improving weather and conditions throughout the week. It was an exhausting week but worth every second. We loved having everyone up to Wenatchee and Mission Ridge and hope to do it again. A big thank you to Sarah Schleper, Stacey Cook, Keely Kelleher and Hailey Duke. Also to Paul McDonald, Dave Chodounsky, Colby Granstrom and Dane Spencer. Again, thanks for coming! To all the teams from around the country and from Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, New Zealand, Estonia, Czech Republic, Great Britain (Scotland) and Australia thanks for coming, we enjoyed it!
This entry is really just to peak a little interest as I will start to cover all the topics listed above. I will probably as soon as tomorrow morning. Starting Monday, April 26th, I will try to keep a Monday/Thursday schedule with updates regarding camps, national team changes, injury updates, company switches and other such news. Keep reading!
Click here to go to
Alpine Race Consulting
Greg “Grande” Needell grew up ski racing at Stratton Mountain,
Vermont. After graduating from SMS he skied for NCAA Division 1 St.
Lawrence University in Canton, NY where he was co-captain in 1986. Greg
returned to SMS to coach there for five years serving as the Head
Women’s Coach as well as the Head J2 Men’s Coach. He then moved to
Mission Ridge in Wenatchee, Washington in 1992 to become the Program
Director and Head Coach of the Mission Ridge Ski Club. In 1997, Greg
became the Head Coach at Mammoth Mountain, California.
In 2002 Needell was asked to join the U.S. Ski Team staff as a World
Cup SL and GS coach. From 2002 to 2008 Needell helped lead the U.S. Ski
Team Men to 43 wins, 105 podiums and 264 top ten finishes. Now at the
helm of Alpine Race Consulting, Needell offers his knowledge and
experience to clubs nationwide.
About the Author: Eric Williams
